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<h1><a href="https://archiveofourown.org/works/26556976">Family Don’t End in Blood</a> by <a class='authorlink' href='https://archiveofourown.org/users/sometimesiwritespn/pseuds/sometimesiwritespn'>sometimesiwritespn</a></h1>

<table class="full">

<tr><td><b>Series:</b></td><td>Multi-Chapter Stories [6]</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Category:</b></td><td>Supernatural, Supernatural RPF</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Genre:</b></td><td>Additional Warnings Apply, Additional Warnings In Author's Note, Angst, Angst and Hurt/Comfort, Anxiety, Anxiety Attacks, Anxiety Disorder, Brewery owner Jensen Ackles, Character Death, Cuddling &amp; Snuggling, Domestic Fluff, Emotional Hurt/Comfort, F/M, Family Business Beer Company, Fluff, Fluff and Angst, Fluff and Hurt/Comfort, Friends to Lovers, Healing, Hurt/Comfort, Major character death - Freeform, Nightmares, Non profit owner Misha Collins, Non-Famous AU, Other Additional Tags to Be Added, Post-Traumatic Stress Disorder - PTSD, Relationship Issues, Triggers, trigger warning</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Language:</b></td><td>English</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Status:</b></td><td>In-Progress</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Published:</b></td><td>2020-09-20</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Updated:</b></td><td>2020-09-20</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Packaged:</b></td><td>2021-05-06 09:02:35</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Rating:</b></td><td>Not Rated</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Warnings:</b></td><td>Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Chapters:</b></td><td>2</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Words:</b></td><td>3,518</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Publisher:</b></td><td>archiveofourown.org</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Story URL:</b></td><td>https://archiveofourown.org/works/26556976</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Author URL:</b></td><td>https://archiveofourown.org/users/sometimesiwritespn/pseuds/sometimesiwritespn</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Summary:</b></td><td><div class="userstuff">
              <p><i> Jensen pulled Emma aside when she came in. “Hey... are you doing okay?” He asked gently as he touched her arm. “You don’t look so great. No offense.” </i><br/> <br/>  <i>Emma couldn’t help the tiny little laugh that escaped, but she kept her blue eyes averted down toward the ground. “Yeah, yeah. I’m okay. Just... a little bit of a hard appointment today. I, uh, go to therapy every week.”</i><br/> <br/>  <i>“I figured you might.” Jensen answered without even thinking about it, and silently cursed himself when she looked up at him in confusion. He could practically see the walls building up in her mind once again. “I... when your background check came back, I... heard about your husband. I’m so sorry. I’m here if you ever want to talk about it to someone who isn’t your therapist.”</i><br/> <br/>Emmalyn is Misha’s wife, who dies in a horrible tragedy. What happens when she starts a job at Family Business Beer Company with Jensen Ackles as her boss? Will she ever be able to love again?</p>
            </div></td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Relationships:</b></td><td>Genevieve Cortese/Jared Padalecki, Jensen Ackles/Original Female Character(s)</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Series:</b></td><td>Multi-Chapter Stories [6]</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Series URL:</b></td><td>https://archiveofourown.org/series/1039349</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Comments:</b></td><td>2</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Kudos:</b></td><td>8</td></tr>

</table>

<a name="section0001"><h2>1. Chapter 1</h2></a>
<div class="story"><div class="fff_chapter_notes fff_head_notes"><b>Author's Note:</b><blockquote class="userstuff">
      <p>Hi guys! I know it’s been forever, but I got the writing muse tonight, and... this is what you get. It’s probably not great, I haven’t reread any of it, and maybe it’s a shitty idea in general. But I have a few chapters written out, so, hopefully you guys like it!</p><p>Let me know what you think! Kudos and comments feed the muse &lt;3</p>
    </blockquote></div><div class="userstuff module">
    
    <p>“Mrs. Collins?” </p>
<p>Every time she heard the last name, the memory came rushing back. She remembered it like it was yesterday, but it wasn’t something she wanted to remember. “Emmalyn, please.” She said with a soft smile, twisting her wedding ring around her finger. </p>
<p>“Emmalyn, of course. Do you ever go by Emma? Or just Emmalyn?” She found herself looking up into beautiful green eyes, and the stranger extended his hand to her. “I’m Jensen Ackles. I’m the owner of Family Business Brewing Company.”</p>
<p>Emmalyn smiled and shook his hand. “Emma or Emmalyn, either one. It’s nice to meet you, Jensen. I really appreciate you giving me this opportunity.”</p>
<p>“Here, come on. Let’s take a walk.” Jensen gestured for her to stand up from the barstool. “Now that FBBC has started to gain traction in Texas, we’re definitely needing some more help around here. You know anything about beer?”</p>
<p>Emma stood up and followed him outside. She pulled her purse to the side opposite from Jensen, and laughed softly. “Ah, no.” She confessed. “I’m not a big beer drinker, more of a wine and cider girl myself. But I’ve had a bit of a rough year, and I need to get back out there into the real world. When I saw you guys were hiring, I thought maybe I could waitress or something.” </p>
<p>Jensen nodded. “Well, we’ll have to teach you about our beers, because a lot of people will ask you what beer they should get based on their preferences.” He looked over at her. A part of him wanted to ask about her rough year, but he also knew it wasn’t any of his business — especially if he was about to be her boss. “What’s your availability look like? Do you have any sort of weekly commitment? Sports your kids do?” </p>
<p>Emmalyn smiled at the mention of kids. “No kids. I do have a weekly appointment on Mondays from 10-11am, so I’d need to work a night shift on Mondays, but other than that, I’m free.” </p>
<p>“I think we can handle that.” Jensen smiled. “We’re going to have to get some paperwork filled out, and run a background check, but as long as everything goes well, then I’d like to welcome you to the FBBC team.”</p>
<p>Emmalyn was shocked. It was hardly an interview. But working at a brewery wasn’t the most complicated job in the world, and Jensen probably just wanted to make sure someone could hold a conversation. “Wow. Okay, yeah. Thank you so much.” </p>
<p>They went back inside the brewery and Emmalyn filled out some paperwork. Jensen got her on the schedule for a Monday night shift along with a trainer, and she was on her way back home. </p>
<p>Jensen put in a request for a background check, which usually took a couple days to come back, and should be back before she started on Monday. Just out of curiosity, and because Jensen did this with all potential employees, he put her name into Google. “Emmalyn Collins.” He said out loud to himself as he typed.</p>
<p>To his surprise, news articles started to come up. Usually the only thing that would come up were Facebook profiles and maybe a couple photos — not legitimate news articles. Jensen clicked on the first one that came up.</p>
<p>“Man hit by car in hit and run identified as Misha Collins of Austin, Texas, age 40.” Jensen said softly as he skimmed the article. Then a jolt of nausea rushed through him when he saw pictures. He’d seen the graphic image warning, but that wasn’t even the part that got to him. It was Emmalyn kneeling in front of him, devastated. He didn’t understand why these images were online, let alone a news article. “Pictured— Emmalyn Collins, wife to Misha Collins for five years, kneeling next to him after witnessing the incident.” </p>
<p>Jensen checked the date of the news article and noticed it was dated a little over a year prior. Well, that explained her mention of it being a rough year. Absentmindedly, Jensen wondered if her weekly appointment was a therapy appointment. Not like it was his business if it was. </p>
<p>Running a hand through his hair, Jensen sighed and clicked out of the news article. At least now he knew, so if she was having a bad day he could understand. He couldn’t imagine it. The article mentioned that she witnessed it. She witnessed her husband get hit by a car, and then die. It was horrific to even think about.</p>
<p>For the first time in over a year, Emmalyn felt a little glimmer of hope for the future. After Misha had passed, her whole world had been destroyed in the matter of a few minutes. She’d quit her job and traveled for almost a year after she’d gotten done getting all of Misha’s affairs in order. She’d seen so many things — so many things she and Misha had wanted to see together, but had always pushed off, saying they’d get to it eventually. </p>
<p>Emma had really tried her best to enjoy it. She knew Misha wouldn’t want her going to these places and not enjoying herself, but she kept picturing how it would be if Misha was by her side, like he should have been. </p>
<p>After Emma had finally visited all of the places she and Misha had on their bucket list, she’d come back to Austin, got a little studio apartment, and knew it was time for her to get back to the real world. But she didn’t want a big salary job where she’d have to work all the time, so she started looking into waitressing or a receptionist or something. When she’d seen the ad for a waitress at FBBC, she figured she’d go for it. It was time for her to start getting on with her life again. Even if she didn’t want to, she knew it was what Misha would have wanted.</p>
<p>How does one just get over the death of their significant other? How does one get over the grief? How does one just get on with their life? Misha’s things were all still packed away in boxes, taking up quite a bit of space in her tiny studio apartment. But she couldn’t bear to look through them, and she especially couldn’t bear to get rid of any of them. </p>
<p>Emma sat down on the couch in the living room when she got home, and grabbed a picture she had printed out of her and Misha. “I got a job.” She said softly. “Just a waitressing job, nothing special. But it’s something. I’ve finally gotten furniture delivered into here, I have a job, I’m going to therapy... I hope you’re up there watching, and I hope you’re proud of me.” She stroked her thumb over his face in the picture. “I miss you.” </p>
<p>Emma finally forced herself to get up from the couch and go get in bed. She had a queen sized bed, which looked oversized with the little floor space she had, but it was still the same bed she and Misha had shared. While she was traveling she’d put it into a storage unit. </p>
<p>Still, to this day, it was weird climbing into ‘her’ side of the bed and having it be cold and untouched on the other side. She still faced toward his side when she went to sleep, and still expected to feel his arms around her. </p>
<p>Some days were better than others. Some days she could climb into bed and fall asleep rather quickly. Other times she would climb into bed and stare at his pillow and wish that a year later it still had his smell, and it would take her forever to finally sleep. </p>
<p>This night was one of the latter.</p>
  </div></div>
<a name="section0002"><h2>2. Chapter 2</h2></a>
<div class="story"><div class="fff_chapter_notes fff_head_notes"><b>Notes for the Chapter:</b><blockquote class="userstuff"><p>Posting chapters 1 and 2 at the same time so you get a little taste of the story, then hopefully I can update kinda weekly like I did with my other stories.</p><p>Also, if you’ve read my other stories — the chapters are a little shorter than those. I’m pretty much writing this on my phone, which makes formatting and grammar and all that a little harder, so please forgive me.</p><p>Comments and kudos feed the muse, let me know what you think!</p></blockquote></div><div class="userstuff module">
    
    <p>“Emmalyn, you know I’m busy. You know I can’t just take time off work for nothing! Hell, we haven’t even planned any of our vacations because we both have to work. You know that’s not how this works.” Misha said, clearly annoyed.</p><p>Emma cleared her throat. “Yes, Misha, I know you can’t just take time off work for nothing. But neither of us have taken any sick days in literally the past couple years, we deserve to take a day off and go on a quick road trip!” She gripped his arm. “Please, Misha. Please at least just think about it.” </p><p>Misha shook her off his arm and sighed as he pushed his chair back from the table they were both currently sitting at for lunch. “I take enough time off having lunch with you every day. You know the nonprofit is in their busy season, and yet we continue to take over an hour lunch every day.” </p><p>Emma stood up from the table as well. “Well if it’s such a big deal for you to take an hour lunch, why didn’t you just say so? You take an hour lunch anyway, are you just mad you’re leaving work for it?”</p><p>“Why didn’t I say anything? Because if I said anything, then you would’ve gotten mad at me!” Misha placed cash down on the table, enough to cover their bill and a tip. “I have to get back to work.”</p><p>Without another word, Misha stormed out of the restaurant. Emmalyn couldn’t believe they were arguing over something so stupid, something so insignificant. “Don’t you walk away from me, Misha!” </p><p>The one good thing to come from all of this was that Emma knew when Misha came home that night and they’d both cooled off, they could have an actual civil conversation about it. </p><p>Emmalyn stormed out after him and looked around, finally seeing him to the right, and about to cross the street. She quickly tried to catch up to him, breaking out into a quick jog. “Misha, wait! C’mon, don’t be a dick!” </p><p>Misha noticed the sign said that they could walk, so he strode out into the street without even looking. Emma was just starting to catch up to him when she saw it — and horrified, she looked back to Misha. “MISHA!” She screamed, and sprinted, and managed to get to him just in time to pull him out of the path of the car.</p><p>They both went tumbling back into the intersection, and there were collective gasps from all of the other people walking around on their lunch break.</p><p>Eyes wide, Emma looked back over to Misha, and placed a hand on his cheek. “Oh my god. Are you okay? Are you hurt?”</p><p>Misha’s eyes were just as wide as hers, face pale at the near death situation. He looked down at himself, then back to her. “No, I’m fine.” He said breathlessly. “Thank you.” Misha leaned forward to kiss her deeply, and when he pulled back, he rested their foreheads together.</p><p>“Let’s go on that road trip.”</p><p>Emmalyn jolted up in bed, her heart beating wildly in her chest. Holy shit, that had been a terrible nightmare. But she had gotten Misha out of there—</p><p>And then she looked over at the other side of the bed. The other side that was untouched. Cold. And looked around and saw her little studio apartment instead of the old house they used to live in.</p><p>A sob broke from her chest as she realized what a cruel dream she’d just had. Not only was it a dream about what had happened — but it had a good ending. An ending that she so desperately still wished had happened. An ending that just reminded her she wasn’t quick enough. That she was the one who had made Misha storm out in the middle of that intersection without looking both ways, without a second thought.</p><p>Emma grabbed Misha’s pillow and pulled it to her chest, and just cried. “Why couldn’t it have been me?” She questioned to no one, but to Misha where obviously she couldn’t hear the response. “Why not just once can I have a dream where you just come visit me? Are you still so angry at me?” She smelled the pillow, but after a year of hugging the pillow, none of his scent was left. Sometimes, if she squeezed her eyes shut and focused really hard, she could pretend there was still something there. “I’m so sorry, Misha. I’m so sorry. You deserved so much better than to die in that cruel, senseless way.” </p><p>Emmalyn kept hugging Misha’s pillow, and soon enough, the crying ended up tiring her out so much that she fell back asleep into another fitful sleep, hoping she could just have a dreamless sleep, and not another nightmare.</p><p>“Misha.” Emmalyn heard herself whisper, and although she was dreaming, she could tell she was asleep. But she couldn’t make herself wake up, like she was trapped in her own brain.</p><p>She was kneeling over Misha’s body in the middle of the road. He was still alive, but his eyes were unfocused. Emmalyn took Misha’s hand and squeezed, and winced as he groaned. With every movement, Emma could hear more things that weren’t right, and she was trying her hardest not to cry. “Misha, it’s okay. You’re going to get some help, and you’re going to be just fine, okay?”</p><p>“Gotta—“ Misha coughed, and some blood came up, which Emma quickly wiped away. “Call... Emma.” He finally managed to say, and she couldn’t help it, a soft cry escaped.</p><p>“I’m right here, sweetheart. Misha, it’s Emma. Can you please look over at me? I’m right here.” Emma used her free hand to stroke her thumb over Misha’s temple. </p><p>Misha’s piercing blue eyes slowly moved over to her own, and Emmalyn could see him relaxing just a little bit. “Em.” He whispered quietly. She could’ve cried again with the knowledge that he recognized her. “Em, I—“</p><p>Emmalyn swallowed hard, quickly wiped her face, and forced herself to stop crying. “You’re going to be okay, Misha. You just hang on for me, okay?”</p><p>“I love you.” Were the last words that came from Misha’s mouth, and Emma could see as the life drained from him, and his eyes went blank before she could even say anything in return.</p><p>“Misha, no. No, please. Please, you have to wake up! HELP!” Emma pleaded with those around her, even though deep down she knew there was nothing anyone could do. She tried doing chest compressions, but finally gave up, threw her body over his, and just sobbed. </p><p>Once more, Emmalyn bolted upright in bed, and once more rubbed roughly at her eyes. That was the one thing she’d never told anybody. Not even her therapist that she’d been seeing virtually throughout her travels and in person now that she was back in Austin. </p><p>Her therapist kept telling her she had to get over the guilt. That just because they’d had a fight didn’t mean it was her fault. And yes, Emma had been struggling with that. But the part she was most struggling with was the last thing Misha ever heard her say before his body was annihilated by that car was her telling him not to be a dick. </p><p>Emmalyn had of course spoken to him after he’d gotten hit, but it had been obvious he wasn’t really focusing on anything. The last thing Misha had <i>clearly</i>heard her say... was that he was being a dick.</p><p>Emmalyn could never forgive herself for that.</p><p>Emma knew if she even tried to go back to sleep, she would just keep having those dreams. Most nights weren’t quite as bad as that one, but every so often, they happened. So although it was only 4 am, Emmalyn was up for the day. </p><p>She wrapped a blanket around herself and moved over to the couch so she wouldn’t end up falling back asleep. Emma resigned herself to watching tv until it was time to work. </p><p>She’d been working at Family Business Beer Co for almost a month now, and she was mostly scheduled on the day shift, so she mostly worked with Jensen. She’d met all of her other coworkers, and they all seemed great. They were great when she worked with them on the night shift the couple times a week that she would. </p><p>Emmalyn got to work early. Earlier than she usually was, because she couldn’t sit around her apartment any longer. </p><p>As soon as Emma walked in the door, Jensen could tell it hadn’t been a good night, or day, for her. There were more prominent bags under her eyes than usual, she had lost that pep in her step, and she just looked... exhausted. But Jensen wasn’t going to say anything, because it wasn’t his place. So, he decided to just treat her the way he always did, when she came in happy and peppy.</p><p>“Hey Em!” He greeted, and his heart broke a bit when she hardly smiled. “You’re here early.” </p><p>“Yeah, woke up early so I figured I’d come in. I’m going to clock in, but if you don’t want to pay me, that’s fine. Just adjust it when you do time cards.” Emma answered, and that was when Jensen knew how awful she really felt. That she didn’t even care if he adjusted her hours so it looked like she was just working her scheduled hours. </p><p>“No worries. Go for it.” Jensen called back, but she was already in the back room to clock in. He sighed softly, then finished up getting set up for the day.</p><p>Emma did a couple last minute opening things, and ended up being the one to open the doors once it was time. Since it was a brewery, it was never super busy when they first opened, but business picked up throughout the day.</p><p>“How was your night?” Jensen questioned casually as he continued getting stuff ready. They didn’t get everything ready before they opened the brewery, because some stuff didn’t sell until later in the day.</p><p>“Fine. How was yours?” Emma questioned. She knew she needed to act better if she wanted to fly under the radar, so she shot Jensen a smile and hoped it wasn’t super conspicuous. </p><p>Jensen could see right through that smile, but he wasn’t going to say anything about it. “It was good. Didn’t do a whole lot, but that’s to be expected for a week night.” </p><p>Emma really didn’t feel like talking, but that was what she got paid to do, so she knew she had to. She quickly took care of the tables that were there when they first opened, greeting the regulars like old friends already since she saw them at least a few days a week, and had been for the past month. </p><p>She made small talk with Jensen, even though she didn’t want to. But it was pretty easy to talk to him, because she only had to say a few words or ask a few questions, and it got him off and running, and she hardly had to say anything.</p><p>But soon enough, Jensen had actually managed to do what he intended to. He got her distracted, he got her thinking about anything aside from what had happened at home. Soon enough, Emma was smiling and laughing and talking just like usual. </p><p>When they were finally done with their shift for the day, Jensen and Emma walked out together after making sure everything was set up for night shift. “So, how are you liking FBBC?” He questioned with a smile as he looked over at her.</p><p>“It’s... honestly better than I thought it would be.” Emma laughed softly. “Not that I thought it would be bad, but you know. It’s a waitressing job, so I didn’t have a ton of high hopes. But... I like working with you. And I like the people I work with on night shift, and I like the regulars. So, it’s better than I thought it would be.”</p><p>Jensen grabbed her in a side hug, his arm squeezing around her shoulders. “Glad to hear that, Emmalyn. You’re definitely part of the FBBC family now. There’s no getting rid of us even if you quit.”</p><p>Emma laughed. “There’s no way in hell I’m thinking about quitting. I haven’t been this happy in a long time, and especially not at a job. So... thank you. Thank you for giving me a chance, Jensen.”</p><p>“That’s what we do. We are Family Business’ Beer Company, after all. We take our motto seriously.” Jensen nodded.</p><p>Emma raised an eyebrow at the words, and looked back over to him. “Well, considering I’ve been working here a month, I should probably know this, but I don’t. So... what’s this motto you speak of?”</p><p>Jensen also raised an eyebrow back at her and smiled. He hadn’t even thought about telling her the motto before he’d hired her. “Family don’t end in blood.” He smiled. “That’s the short version, anyway. Family don’t end in blood, but it doesn’t start there, either. Family cares about you, not what you can do for them. Family’s there through the good, bad, all of it. They got your back even when it hurts. That’s family.”</p>
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